Netherlands: Bulk uploader must pay 150,000 EUR

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A district court in the Netherlands Center recently sentenced a mass uploader from the province of Utrecht. He is accused of having uploaded a large number of movies and TV series to Usenet and to BitTorrent exchange partners. He is said to have been actively involved in the websites Place2Home.org and Place2Home.net for six years.

The unnamed mass uploader from the Utrecht area is said to have uploaded up to 500 Gb warez at one time. For six years, the man had worked extensively on the sites Place2Home.org and Place2Home.net. The antipiracy association BREIN took these portals off the grid in the previous year. The court obliges the convicted person to cease his activity permanently. In addition, he should pay fines of up to € 150,000. He was also sentenced to pay the legal costs. Four other uploaders who noticed their activity have previously agreed out of court with BREIN.

Mass uploader supported "parasitic platforms"

The management of BREIN comments on the verdict: " Illegal uploading or downloading of works by other people is not OK . The money earned with it disappears into the pockets of parasitic platforms. Creators and legal platforms get nothing in return. "

According to these uploaders, the Place2Home sites were owned by the same owner as Usenet's Newsconnection, which sold Usenet subscriptions to Usenet provider XSnews. Usenet vendors selling subscriptions are benefiting, according to BREIN, from websites such as Place2Home, where visitors can easily find NZB files on popular illegal Usenet offerings such as movies and TV series.

According to Newsconnection's owner, XSnews paid the legal fees for the lawsuit BREIN had filed against him. In this case, last year he was obliged by the Court of Appeal of Den Bosch to design his service in such a way that upon request he could disclose the identity of uploaders and other customers . After BREIN submitted evidence and confiscation results related to its role to the Place2Home sites, the operator hired Newsconnection.

BREIN appeals to the sustainability of legal offers and to the conscience of subscribers: " When you pay something, you choose a legal platform. Everyone gets their share and new products (music albums, movies, games, software etc.) can then continue to be produced. "

A lawsuit is pending against News-Service Europe . In this case, questions were asked to the ECJ regarding the disclosure and liability of this provider. These are also important for the sale of subscriptions through XSnews because, in the opinion of BREIN, customer data and even employees have been exchanged between XSnews and Newsconnection.